Genomic signatures of human versus avian influenza A viruses

Emerg Infect Dis. 2006 Sep;12(9):1353-60. doi: 10.3201/eid1209.060276.

Abstract

Position-specific entropy profiles created from scanning 306 human and 95 avian influenza A viral genomes showed that 228 of 4591 amino acid residues yielded significant differences between these 2 viruses. We subsequently used 15,785 protein sequences from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to assess the robustness of these signatures and obtained 52 "species-associated" positions. Specific mutations on those points may enable an avian influenza virus to become a human virus. Many of these signatures are found in NP, PA, and PB2 genes (viral ribonucleoproteins [RNPs]) and are mostly located in the functional domains related to RNP-RNP interactions that are important for viral replication. Upon inspecting 21 human-isolated avian influenza viral genomes from NCBI, we found 19 that exhibited > or =1 species-associated residue changes; 7 of them contained > or =2 substitutions. Histograms based on pairwise sequence comparison showed that NP disjointed most between human and avian influenza viruses, followed by PA and PB2.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence*
  • Animals
  • Birds / virology
  • Genome, Viral*
  • Humans
  • Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / classification
  • Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / genetics
  • Influenza A Virus, H7N7 Subtype / classification
  • Influenza A Virus, H7N7 Subtype / genetics
  • Influenza A Virus, H9N2 Subtype / classification
  • Influenza A Virus, H9N2 Subtype / genetics
  • Influenza A virus / classification*
  • Influenza A virus / genetics*
  • Influenza in Birds / virology*
  • Influenza, Human / virology*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutation
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Species Specificity
  • Viral Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Viral Proteins

Associated data

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